Call for submissions: The Never Never Land

The Never Never Land will be an anthology of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror storiesedited by Mitchell Akhurst, Phillip Berrie and Ian McHugh. It will be published in April 2015 as both a trade paperback and in e-book formats.

What We’re Looking For

CSFG anthologies have been elsewhere and encountered the other, we’ve met the outcast and seen behind the mask and what happens next. Now we want to bring the stories back here, in our new anthology with the working title of The Never Never Land.

For The Never Never Land, we’re looking for Australian stories, whatever that may mean to you, or stories that are inspired by this country.

If you send us Peter Pan stories, you’re probably missing the point.

Think On the Beach, Mad Max, Two Hands and Tomorrow, When the War Began. Think Terry Dowling’s Rynosseros and Wormwood stories, Sean Williams’s Books of the Change, Patricia Wrightson’s The Nargun and the Stars and the stories in Gillian Polack’s Baggage anthology. Or step outside and look around you, and think something completely different. We want to capture the diversity of what an “Australian + speculative” story can mean.

Submissions will open from 1 June to 31 August 2014. Stories submitted outside this period will be discarded unread.

The Details

You do not need to be a CSFG member to submit, but you must be Australian (see note below).

Submissions will be read blind (ie, the editors won’t have the author’s details when making their selections) to ensure that CSFG members compete on equal terms with other writers and that stories are selected on merit.

We’re paying a flat rate of AUD$30, one copy of the trade paperback and one copy of the e-book on publication of the anthology. We’re buying first English language print and electronic rights.

Stories must be between 1,000 and 5,000 words in length and must contain some element of science fiction, fantasy or horror. We’re open to any subgenre of SF and fantasy, but see the note below on horror. We’re not seeking poetry.

No simultaneous submissions (i.e. please don’t submit your story anywhere else while it’s with us, or vice versa). We’ll endeavour to respond to submissions as quickly as possible.

No multiple submissions (i.e. only send us one story). If your story doesn’t suit us, but we see enough in it to ask for a rewrite or to see something else, we’ll let you know. If your story is rejected, please only send us a rewrite or another story if you’re invited to do so.

Electronic submissions only. Submit your story as a .doc or .rtf attachment to csfg.submissions@gmail.com. Use the subject line “Submission:[your story title]”. Please include your name, address, story title and word count in your covering email.

A note on qualifying as an Australian writer: if you live here but have a foreign passport, or you’re from New Zealand or the South Pacific, then you qualify—in keeping with the grand tradition of Australians claiming you as Ours if you’re any good.

A note on horror: creep us out, scare us, by all means, but we’re not interested in slasher stories, torture porn or horror that lacks a speculative element.

A note on Indigenous stories: we will welcome submissions of Indigenous stories. Writers (especially non-Indigenous writers) considering stories with Indigenous themes or drawing on Indigenous cultural knowledge should be familiar with the Australia Council’s protocols on Indigenous writing.

Any questions? Send them to canberra.specfic@gmail.com with a subject line beginning with “Query:” (Don’t send your queries to the submissions address, as it won’t be monitored prior to 1 June.)